


Opportunity

by I_Gave_You_Fair_Warning



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Prequel Trilogy, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Death by Landmine, Deathfic, Gen, Graphic Description of its Aftermath, Graphic Dismemberment, Heavy Angst, Murder-Suicide, Obi-Wan Flirts With Badguys, Sad Ending, Taking Out Badguys
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-30
Updated: 2019-06-30
Packaged: 2020-05-31 07:50:35
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,398
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19421644
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/I_Gave_You_Fair_Warning/pseuds/I_Gave_You_Fair_Warning
Summary: Obi-Wan stepped on a mine. He decides to lure the Separatists' leadership into close vicinity. There's not a thing Anakin can do about it.





	Opportunity

Obi-Wan's voice sounded utterly calm when he explained his situation, the polar opposite of Anakin's frantic reply:

“Disarm it with the Force! You saw me do it with Trapper!”

“Anakin, I tried it. I don't have the finesse with circuitry that you have. The work is too delicate for me. I cannot differentiate the pieces one from another without seeing them. Maybe I could if I directed all of my focus, but if I unconsciously shifted my weight or moved my foot— well, it would be messy. I rather want to keep track of what my body is doing right now.”

Anakin looked to the cockpit, but the drop ship was already speeding as fast as it could go. “I'll be there real soon, then I'll do it. Okay? You just hold still and breathe.”

“Oh, I'm waiting. I don't have anything else better to do,” Obi-Wan replied, that humor surfacing even while he stood on a landmine.

Anakin found himself shaking, and he met Cody's gaze, just as drawn and scared as his own.

* * *

Obi-Wan intended to let Anakin save him, of course.

Getting his legs blown off was something he'd _really rather avoid,_ thank you.

Something had to be out here if the droids had bothered to leave hidden landmines, but Obi-Wan sure hadn't found it.

He  _did_ feel grateful he'd been the one scouting in this direction, not a shiny. In this situation, panic could kill.

He drew in a breath, let it out, sensed something approaching.  _Two_ somethings.

“We're almost there, okay? Just hold on,” Anakin encouraged through the link.

Obi-Wan crossed his arms, shifted the angle of his head to arrogant, and murmured, “It's going to be alright, Anakin.”

He wished he could say something more, something else, but he didn't have time, right now. And any distress would be sensed. He muted the sound coming from Anakin, and killed the visual going  _to_ him...

But he left the audio on.

_I need him to know I'm alright with this._

It was rather sudden, but the opportunity,  _two_ of the three leaders in the war effort? The brains and half the brawn?

Fading out of the trees, Obi-Wan spotted the sources of the Force disturbances.

Dooku. Ventress.  _And—_ ?

Obi-Wan's heart bounded and a heady thrill passed through him.

Grievous too.

“I thought you said this side was secure,” Dooku growled.

Grievous hacked and glared. “It  _is._ The tactical droid assured me he had it under control—”

“Clearly  _not._ ”

Ventress prowled closer, hands on her sabers. “Obi-Wan.”

“Darling. Felt an urge. Thought I should call.”

Dooku looked sickened and Ventress' Force-sense shifted to annoyed. “I deserve your respect, Kenobi.”

“Oh, I assure you, I think very highly of you. Or is it, very  _often_ ?” He smiled his slay-the-politician smile, and she simply shook her head. 

“Your lines are getting  _worse_ instead of better. It's rather sad.”

“Grievous!” Obi-Wan crowed, and in surprise the cyborg took four steps closer. “I've missed you.”

The droid looked as confused and off-step as he always did when Obi-Wan flirted with him. Ventress always put down Grievous for his lack of sexuality. Obi-Wan preferred to behave as if desperately wanting to be fripped by the general.

The look in his eye always amused— the trying to calculate if the attraction was  _real,_ or just words to distract.

Hell. Not even Ventress was entirely sure Obi-Wan's flirtation was all strategy.

And that? That was something Obi-Wan took  _great_ pride in.

Dooku frowned. “Why are you here, Kenobi? Where is your backup?”

“Oh, on its way.” Obi-Wan smiled at him. “I'll only keep you waiting a moment.”

Grievous stormed forwards, furious. “Time to not look so smug. You're outnumbered, Kenobi.”

Obi-Wan raised his hands in coy surrender, flashing Grievous a dazzling smile. “Perhaps.”

And then he bent his left knee, tossing his ankle up behind him.

* * *

Anakin reeled and might have fallen, when the explosion cracked through the comm.

He'd been screaming at Obi-Wan not to do it, don't  _do it,_ dammit— but the light had signified Obi-Wan could not hear.

Held up by Rex and Waxer, Anakin stared into Cody's eyes, everything eerily silent except for his own breath.

* * *

Obi-Wan, deprived of a leg and some of his abdomen, lay on the dirt, ears feeling broken from the noise. He could feel blood and other things draining out of him, and he lay almost on his stomach, head tipped to the side.

Ventress had landed on her back beside him, ears bleeding, shrapnel buried in her chest. She turned her head, shifting wide eyes to see him.

Obi-Wan felt a vibration in the ground and tipped his head back, found a mangled Grievous trying to crawl away.

_No._ _I get them all. They're all mine._

He grabbed Ventress' saber, clutched tight in her hand, and clawed at her fingers to pry it free.

That's how he discovered some of his  _own_ were missing, when his grip didn't grab as much as he'd anticipated. He wrenched the saber from Ventress, locked it on, and used the Force to lift it from his palm, since he couldn't move his arm enough for a throw.

He closed his eyes, trying to focus, gather enough dexterity—

It was draining out of him—

Another Force presence met his efforts, hurtling the saber ahead and slashing it messily and clumsily all up through Grievous' chest and cleaving his head in two.

Obi-Wan opened his eyes, found Ventress smirking at him.

_If she doesn't get to walk out of here, neither does he,_ Obi-Wan supposed, by the vicious and gleeful gleam in her eye.

He reached out his mauled hand, brushed her cheek.

_I'm sorry. I would rather have saved you. Brought you back to people who would actually care, instead of Dooku. Back to the people Ky Narec loved so much._

She did not reject his touch, and she didn't look insulted by it this time.

Perhaps because this,  _this_ was genuine.

He saw himself in her. What he might have become, if Yoda had not brought him back to the Temple after Melida/Daan. Broken by heartbreak and rage and loneliness.

Thought went away, leaving only her eyes. Eyes that were free of the hate of him for the first time,  _now._ When he'd signed her death warrant.

Funny, that.

The amusement tugged at his lip, and then his vision filled with black dots he couldn't see past.

“Nice move,” Asajj's voice brushed past his ear.

_Goodbye, Anakin. Have peace as my wedding gift to you, late._

* * *

The gunship hovered, unwilling to put down because of the potential of more mines.

Anakin stared at the disaster in horror.

Dooku lay sprawled, shrapnel in his throat, his eyes closed, gone.

Grievous had lost limbs, and Ventress' saber, still locked on, was through his skull and buried in the ground, hissing and spitting where the dirt touched the blade.

Ventress passed even as they arrived, her gaze soft where it lingered on the dead form beside her.

And there lay Obi-Wan, utterly ripped apart, in pieces.

Waxer dropped to his knees and heaved.

Anakin didn't know why he himself didn't have a similar reaction.

He used the Force to haul the bodies and— Obi-Wan's leg— into the ship. Their enemies he just dumped in a pile, but with the largest fragment of Obi-Wan left, he brought it straight to his arms, sagged into a seat, and held it close.

The doors closed, the engines roared—

_The war is over._

The papers would have to be signed, the droids deactivated, the clone army pulled out, but the Separatists didn't have any military geniuses  _left._

It would be suicide to keep fighting.

Anakin didn't know how Obi-Wan had done it, had disguised his Force-signature so well with quiet mirth that none of the three had recognized something was  _wrong._ They had received no warning.

Maybe because the thought of dying hadn't traumatized Obi-Wan too much.

If something similar had been required of Anakin to save Padmé, he still would have been trembling and sweating, at least.

Obi-Wan was suave grace and deception to the end.

Without warning, a tear slipped down Anakin's cheek, but it was the only one that fell on that flight back to the  _Resolute._

More would come later, but it would be weeks from now.

Until that breaking point...

This one, was all there was.


End file.
